In the preparation of paper, woven and spiral fabric belts are utilized to support the cellulosic pulp fibers as they are moved through the papermaking process and converted from a thin slurry into finished paper. It has been found that mechanical stability and permeability control of these belts is critical to the production of consistent, high quality paper. As paper machine speeds have increased, fabrics designed for use in the dryer sections of papermaking machines have had their targeted permeability reduced from 500 cubic feet per miracle per square foot; with a pressure differential of one half inch of water to 100 or less. There has also been a trend toward use of thinner fabric constructions to minimize differential forces on the paper as it passes over and under the belts in certain process steps. For woven fabrics, these two papermaker's fabric requirements are in conflict since the common way to reduce permeability is to increase size of the weft yarn or the number of picks per inch, both of which can result in increased fabric thickness. Increased beat-up forces are required to force wefts into these fabric designs For the desired low permeability products. These high beat-up forces lead to fiber and machine damage. For spiral fabrics, ribbon and X shaped yarns have been developed to insert into the open areas of the fabric design. These designs give satisfactory permeability results, but require very careful size control and relatively high force levels for insertion into the fabric and prevention of fabric distortion.